Xerox CEO starts tapping up HP shareholders

Xerox is pursuing a hostile takeover after HP's board rejected a merger bid

Xerox CEO John Visentin will this week start meeting HP shareholders in a bid to tempt them into accepting an offer that HP's board has rejected.

Visentin launched a bid to combine the two ailing print vendors last month, but his deal was unceremoniously rejected by HP CEO Enrique Lores, who questioned Xerox's credibility and claimed the offer was too low.

Xerox has published a set of slides it will be using to tempt investors, in which Visentin claims the offer presents a "clear path to realising value from [shareholders'] investment in HP".

A focus of the presentation is the cost synergies that Xerox is proposing, with the vendor claiming a combination would generate incremental run-rate savings of at least $2bn in the first two years.

It says the move presents "undisputed strategic logic", with potential growth opportunities of between $1bn and $1.5bn (£1.5bn).

Xerox also insisted that there will be no financial condition to the proposed transaction closing, something that HP had earlier disputed.